YOASOBI Interview: Turning Stories Into Music for『THE BOOK for,』

We got the chance to chat with Japanese duo YOASOBI, composed of composer Ayase and vocalist ikura. The group stands out because of its “novel into music” motto, which inspires them to turn stories from various sources—like short tales, novels, plays, and social‑media posts—into songs. They began gaining traction about six years ago when their debut single “Yoru ni Kakeru” topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for six non‑consecutive weeks. For anime fans, however, YOASOBI made an even bigger splash with “Idol,” the opening theme for *Oshi no Ko*, which became one of the best‑selling songs worldwide in 2023, regardless of genre.

Following the launch of the fourth record in their “THE BOOK” series, titled The Book For, YOASOBI sat down with us to talk about the album, how they craft music, and what draws fans into the sound‑world they build. Scroll down for the interview transcript or watch the video below.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. The conversation was conducted with the help of an interpreter.

Q: You just dropped the album “THE BOOK for,” which closes the long‑standing “THE BOOK” series that has defined the group since its start. Can you share how the album came about and what it feels like to wrap up that series?

ikura: With “THE BOOK for,” we’re continuing the format of the albums we’ve released so far—The Book 1, 2, 3, now 4. It captures about two and a half years of YOASOBI’s journey. Because we’re bundling the whole series into one volume, we linked the number “four” with “for,” meaning “for you.” YOASOBI’s drive to turn novels into sound and to bring stories to life won’t change, and the story will keep going. But I hope that through “THE BOOK for,” everyone can feel once more that this is both your story and ours.

Q: How did the collaboration with Overwatch start, and what was the creative process for the new original song “Orion” that was inspired by the game?

Ayase: Overwatch was introducing a new map based on Tokyo, and they thought it would be great to team up with a Japanese artist for that map. They reached out to us, which was a huge honor, and that’s how this project began. For the song, we made sure to stay true to the world of Overwatch. I wanted the experience of players actually playing the game to become even more exciting, and through our music—dare I say—I hoped more people would discover and appreciate Overwatch even further. That love drove us to create “Orion.”

Q: Over the past couple of years you’ve drawn from creator‑written fiction, fan‑submitted game memories, and worlds with strong existing characters. How does the source material change where you start—inside a character, inside a scene, or inside yourselves?

Ayase: It really varies from project to project. It depends on the work. Sometimes the song originates from the protagonist’s emotions as the very first spark. Other times it comes from a sonic inspiration that springs from the overall atmosphere of the story. Each time the starting point is completely different, and because the stories are different, what we aim to express and the sounds that emerge also differ. In a good way, this means something fresh and interesting is born every time.

Q: All of your songs are rooted in stories, but the types of stories people gravitate toward shift over time. Have you found yourself evolving as popular story themes change?

Ayase: To be honest, we’re now in our seventh year as YOASOBI, and in roughly seven years, things haven’t changed that dramatically. There are broader cultural currents in storytelling, as well as social conditions and real‑time topics that reflect the mood of the era. But we haven’t been around long enough for common sense itself to shift in a massive way. So I don’t think we’ve reached a point where our approach to stories changes simply because stories themselves have evolved with the times. Of course, depending on era‑specific trends or the flow of the times, what writers want to write about and the challenges they pursue will naturally shift. As we create songs based on those works, I do feel we’re flexibly adapting in terms of atmosphere or the “NOW” vibe of the moment we’re living in. I think that in itself might be evolution, so I always want to keep updating.

Q: What goes into turning a story into a song? What does that process look like?

Ayase: I don’t feel I can compose a song unless I know the work deeply enough, unless I’ve absorbed it so completely that I can say, “After the original author, I’m the person who understands this work the most.” It starts with reading and re‑reading the source material over and over again. From there, whether it’s the protagonist’s emotions or the overall worldview, I draw inspiration and keep building the sound and lyrics. That’s the process.

Q: You’ve explored many themes in your music over the years, and each song can contain a large number of elements. Are there any themes you’re particularly eager to explore now that you haven’t delved into as much in the past?

Ayase: In terms of musical techniques, we’re constantly pushing boundaries—like exploring ikura’s vocal style, experimenting with rap, or making things more intense. The songs I’m working on right now—which won’t be out for a while yet—reflect that. When I put it into words, I’ve had this desire to give ikura a new theme. This time, is ikura “dark ikura,” or is she “idol ikura”? It depends on how the protagonist fits within the original story’s context. Each moment, each time, there’s a new theme. Right now, I’m crafting something we’ve never done before—a “super dark ikura.”

ikura: YOASOBI works on the principle that every song has an original story, and because of that, each song really has a completely different work written by a completely different person behind it, and that story is what we turn into a song. So I often sing with all kinds of different types of stories in the background. Ayase turns them into songs, and we’ve already challenged ourselves a lot with the different expressions of ikura as a vocalist. I think the songs we’re preparing now will also become songs where you’ll see expressions we haven’t shown before. I haven’t sung them yet, but I’m really looking forward to that myself. From here on too, I want to keep pursuing singing expressions, or characters, that I didn’t have within myself before. I want YOASOBI to always be the kind of presence where, every time we release a new song, people feel, “They’ve surprised us again.”

Q: Your audience now includes anime fans, game fans, festival crowds, and people who know the English versions first. How do you build a setlist that lets newcomers in while still appealing to longtime listeners?

Ayase: I really care about the setlist for live shows. I’m the one who thinks about its structure, and I spend a lot of time on it—whether for shows overseas or in Japan. Of course, there are longtime supporters who come to see us, but there are also people who are important to those fans—friends, partners—who may not know YOASOBI and might be experiencing our music for the first time. There are actually a lot of such people. I truly don’t want to miss even a single person or leave anyone behind, so the setlist is extremely important for that. In terms of human emotion—how should I put it—the rises and falls of emotion, and as entertainment, the setlist of one live show absolutely needs to function properly as a story, with a clear beginning, development, turn, and conclusion. As long as that connects properly as a drama, as a story, then even if there are songs someone doesn’t know, or even if they don’t immediately understand the meaning of the lyrics in that moment, I believe we can absolutely move them through the sound and the visual presentation. So I don’t think of it song by song, or only in blocks. I really place importance on the story of the whole setlist as one big framework. If we can do that, I believe both longtime fans and people who have newly discovered us will enjoy it.

Q: For fans of yours who only know your music through anime, what song or album would you say is a good entry point for them into the rest of your music? What would you recommend to someone who has only heard “Idol?”

ikura: If they’re someone who really likes anime, we’ve also had the opportunity to create songs for many anime tie‑ins up until now. So if there’s another work they like, and there’s something related to it where we did the theme song, then they could listen to a few songs from that kind of place and think, “Oh, YOASOBI is interesting.” And then from there, maybe they might realize, “Oh, actually, there was a novel as the source material,” and that might make it easier for them to enjoy other YOASOBI songs that aren’t in the anime‑song category as an entry point. Also, even if the only song they like is “Idol,” just that one song, if they come to a live show just to hear that, I think we can absolutely make them leave liking us. So please come to our live shows.

Ayase: Exactly!

Q: When a song crosses into English, what are you most unwilling to lose? The story, the rhythm, the character’s voice, or the emotions?

Ayase: Rhythm. Rhythm is everything. Rhythm. I think about rhythm with everything I have. So, in the lyrics of the original songs we usually make in Japanese, rhythm is the part I value above all else. Even when it becomes English, for example, if the meaning doesn’t change but the phrasing changes a little because it’s been translated into English, I’m not an English speaker, so I don’t understand that level of detail myself. If the people checking it together with us say it’s okay, then I think it’s fine. But when it comes to rhythm, in the end, it’s the same as changing the song itself. Even if the melody line is the same, if the rhythm is different, the way the melody is heard changes. And to me, that means the melody itself has changed. So rhythm is the most important thing. And there’s someone named Konnie Aoki who always really understands that feeling of mine and translates very strongly for us. He takes great care of the sense of rhythm that YOASOBI’s originals have when translating them into English.

Q: Across the English‑language albums you’ve created, did you find yourself having to modify phrasing, breathing, or arrangement to prevent losing that rhythm?

ikura: As Ayase just mentioned, Konnie Aoki is the person who translates them for us, and Konnie‑san really works with the motto of delivering YOASOBI’s songs in English while maintaining the original feel and rhythm of the Japanese version as much as possible. So when he translates, I think he does it while being very conscious of that YOASOBI‑like sound design. When I sing, I also try as much as possible to deliver the song while properly maintaining the feeling of the sound that’s being conveyed in the Japanese version. I always make it so that I can immediately listen to the original Japanese version in my headphones, and every time, line by line, I sing while being conscious of making sure the Japanese nuance can come out in the English version in the same way. I’m also conscious of things like breathing and phrasing when I sing.

Q: Recent coverage of your live shows often highlights the visuals as much as the songs. When do visuals help tell the story, and when do they risk getting in the way of it?

Ayase: Basically, I think our style in the first place—both our musical style and our mindset—has very good compatibility with LED visual direction. In terms of visually expressing the story that each song has, I think visual direction is extremely effective. So I don’t think visual direction gets in the way of the live show to begin with. But as I said earlier, when I think about the setlist for a live show, I really want to carefully think through the beginning, development, turn, and conclusion. If everything is bright the whole time, then the bright moments actually become less interesting. So when we go dark, we go properly dark. We might create a situation where only ikura is lit by a spotlight, and then create a moment where everything opens up in a big way, like a flower blooming. To create that kind of dynamic flow in the live show, there are times when we intentionally don’t use visual direction. And on the other hand, there are moments where, at exactly the right timing, we put out an incredible visual at maximum output. So it really depends on how you use it, and I think it will continue to be a tool we keep relying on.

Q: The WANDARA Hall Tour was built around smaller rooms and cities, and now NEVER ENDING STORIES moves back toward much larger North American venues. What did the hall tour teach you that you want to protect even when the scale gets bigger?

ikura: When I stand on stage and sing, something I always keep in mind is that no matter where we are, or what size the venue is, it should always remain one‑on‑one between me and each person in the audience who came to see us. If it’s a large venue with many people, then I think of it as there being many one‑on‑one connections. If it’s a closer distance, then the number of those one‑on‑one connections changes again. That’s how I try to understand it. So whether someone is seated far away in the venue, or right at the very front, I deliver the song with the same amount of passion and energy. That’s something I really value as a mindset. And with YOASOBI, we’ve done hall tours, dome tours, arena tours, Zepp tours, and live house tours up until now. We turn stories into music, and in terms of our live‑show formats too, we’ve challenged ourselves with many different kinds of direction and ways of showing our world. I also think we’re a unit that can do many different things. So I don’t think there are really any particular limits between what we can do in a large venue and what we can do in a small venue. Since there are no limitations, we are exploring creative ways to collaborate with our team at each specific venue. Just as there were unique elements we achieved during our hall tour, there will be exciting new challenges we can take on here during the North America tour. We are fully committed to maximizing this opportunity at these arena venues to showcase our absolute best.

Q: What has it been like performing in the US and bringing J‑pop to a more global audience?

ikura: It’s definitely fun. For the people who come already knowing us and really loving us, we approach it with the feeling that we want to give back with what we want to express and the feelings we carry, even more than the feelings they already have for us. And for people who are discovering us for the first time, or people we meet at festivals and things like that, we’re always performing overseas with the J‑Pop that we ourselves genuinely think is the coolest at that moment. So we go out there with a lot of confidence, like, “The music we’re making is interesting, right? It’s good, right?” We feel no fear because we have complete confidence in what we do. We’ve learned from experience that when we bring that energy to the stage, even those who are seeing us for the first time connect with us. This shared experience has become our greatest strength. We are excited to bring this same mindset to our North America tour, take on new challenges, and have an amazing time!

Q: If you had to choose one song from the last two years that best explains where YOASOBI is right now, which would it be? What does that choice reveal about the version of YOASOBI you want to be in the future?

Ayase: That would be “Orion.” The newest song is always what we most want to express right now, but really, especially in this album, it contains all the songs from our activities over the past two and a half years or so and “Orion” is placed at the top as the newest song. So as you’ll understand if you listen to it, there really isn’t a fixed genre. We’ve truly been doing all kinds of songs with a lot of variety. So I don’t think there is any single genre that defines “this is YOASOBI’s music,” and I don’t think there are any limits in terms of sound design either. I think the album itself really shows that. And within that, “Orion” exists as the newest song, as something we want to express right now. So from here on too, I want us to keep challenging ourselves more and more toward whatever we want to do now, without being trapped by the image people around us have of us, or even the image we have of ourselves. I think people will be able to feel that from “Orion,” and also from the album as a whole.

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We’d like to thank YOASOBI for taking the time to speak with us. 『THE BOOK for,』is available to stream now on major streaming platforms. A full track trailer video has also been released.

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